| Brief resumé of the teacher Conchita Ormaechea |
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The soprano Conchita Ormaechea was born in Madrid,
but at a very early age was taken to Venezuela where she began her first
musical studies at the Caracas College of Music. In 1957 when she was
thirteen, she enrolled at the National School of Opera where under the
guidance of the maestro Primo Casale she began her vocal technique and
repertory studies as well as performing in various opera seasons until the
year 1972. In that year she moved to Europe to continue her vocal technique
studies, first with the legendary maestro Conchita Badía in Barcelona, then
at the Madrid College of Singing with the Professor Isabel Penagos, in
Vienna with María Bösh, in Rome with Letizia Rosatti. Family reasons meant that she was no longer able to perform on stage but she never gave up her studies and research into vocal technique. In 1987 her career as a singing teacher began, first in Rome and then in Caracas, establishing herself in the traditional teaching of vocal technique. However, in spite of achieving very positive results with her students, she felt that her guidance was restricted to repeating the same "myths" that she had heard hundreds of times as a student herself and which had not helped her in the way she would have wished. Completely by chance one day she discovered that when singing is taught traditionally it leads to a number of mistakes which for a lot of individuals results in the failure of their studies. In order to gain a more in-depth understanding of this reality, she began investigative studies which lead her to develop her own unique method known as the "Conexive Method of Singing". The Ministry of Culture of Venezuela and the Fundación Ensamble Albéniz were interested in her work and since 1994 they have backed her investigation and the spreading of the method which is currently being used by over 50 choral groups in Venezuela. The interest generated by this method means that a large part of her time is taken up preparing instructors to monitor the techniques which it teaches. She is currently focussing her efforts on spreading this method throughout the world.
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